The anthropological review - National Library of Scotland

94 NOTES ON THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN.
" I would but remind the Academy that the specimens presented
with my note on March 19 are all well authenticated as coming from
the diluvium, the geognostic condition of which has been well esta-
blished, or from other strata of an equivalent age."
M. CoUomb says*— " The thesis I purpose sustaining is that of the
existence of man prior to the existence of the old glaciers. In my
view, man existed at the commencement of the quaternary period, and
was the contemporary of the elephas primigenius, the rhinoceros
tichorhinus, the ursus spelaeus, etc., and many other extinct species,
which are only found in the deposits immediately succeeding the
tertiary series.
"To arrive at these conclusions, it must be first admitted
" 1. That the quaternary deposits (of which the authors have given
sections) have not been subsequently disturbed.
"2. That the objects of human industry found in them are un-
questionably the works of the human hand, and that they have not
been subsequently introduced in their natural positions.
"This being granted, let us see what passes in the basin of the
Somme, where Boucher de Perthes has collected so many flint im-
plements.
"The follov.'ing is the section which I have examined, in company
with M. Lartet, at Saint Acheul. Omitting details, I find the fol-
lowing :
—
—
" 1. Superior portion, lehm (loam, clay) or loess.
" 2. Middle portion, beds of grey and red sand, with small beds of
silex.
" 3. Inferior portion, gravel, the greater portion of which is formed
of rolled silex and chalk, containing flint implements.
"In the basin of the Seine the quaternary terrain is, according to
D'Orbigny, formed,
"1. Lehm and vegetable earth.
" 2. Red diluvium, quartzose sand with gravel, and marl without
any shells.
" 3. Grey diluvium with granitic elements, beds of marl sand with
lacustrian shells ; gravel at the base containing the remains of ele-
phants and the rhinoceros.
"It is in the inferior portion of the grey diluvium at Grenelle that
M. Gosse found a flint hatchet, exactly resembling those I found at
* " On the Existence of Man prior to the Apparition of the Ancient Glaciers."
Letter by Ed. Collomb to Alph. Tarre ; Bibliotheque Univ. de Genese, torn. viii.
1860.
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